Displaying items by tag: Coastguard
Fixed Wing & Drones May be Part of New Air/Sea Search & Rescue Contract But no Apparent Role for Air Corps
The Irish Coast Guard has asked the Government to include fixed-wing aircraft and use of drones in the new State contract for search and rescue.
As The Sunday Times reports today, tender offers for the new air/sea service, which will replace the existing €60 million a year contract, may be asked to suggest how a mixture of helicopters, fixed-wing and drones could be used – without necessarily being tied to four helicopter bases.
CHC Ireland, which operates a fleet of Sikorsky S-92 helicopters from bases at Shannon, Sligo, Dublin and Waterford for the Irish Coast Guard at a cost of €60 million annually, has been given a one-year extension to its ten-year contract to 2023.
A recent industry briefing in advance of the publication of a tender for the new service from 2024 specified that bidders should be able to deploy a helicopter to anywhere in Ireland or within 12 nautical miles of the coast in 45 minutes of being airborne and be capable of search and rescue in the Irish exclusive economic zone.
It also specified providing one Coast Guard search and surveillance aircraft - which could be fixed wing or drones - on 24-hour standby.
This would reduce the flying time and fuel expenditure of search and rescue helicopters
Questions are being asked within military circles about the need – and possible extra expense of – a dedicated fixed-wing aircraft under the control of the Irish Coast Guard, which could push the contract price up considerably.
The Air Corps is due to take delivery of two new Casa maritime patrol aircraft at a cost of €235 million.
Earlier this month, however, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence Simon Coveney ruled out a role for the Air Corps in search and rescue.
The Air Corps pioneered helicopter rescue off this coast 40 years ago, with long-range missions undertaken by the British RAF and Royal Navy, but it was withdrawn from search and rescue in 2003 by then defence minister Michael Smith.
The Air Corps currently flies the emergency aeromedical service (EAS), based in Athlone, Co Westmeath, which recently marked a milestone by airlifting its 3000th patient.
The Irish Coast Guard flew 54 medical missions this year, with an additional two paediatric transfers to Britain. It also serves the islands and flew 91 medical evacuations from offshore communities.
Read more in The Sunday Times here
Budget 2021: €108m Allocation for Maritime Transport & Safety
A €108m allocation from the Department of Transport will support the work of the Irish Coast Guard it was announced in today's 2021 Budget.
The funding will also provide for the services of the Maritime Safety Policy Division, the Marine Survey Office, the Mercantile Marine Office, the Marine Radio Affairs Unit and the Department’s contribution towards the net cost of the Commissioners of Irish Lights operations all of which are responsible for ensuring the productive and safe use of Ireland’s seas.
In addition, funding is provided to the Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) to allow it to carry out its functions to examine and if necessary carry out investigations into all types of marine casualties to, or onboard, Irish registered vessels worldwide and other vessels in Irish territorial waters and inland waterways.
Time to Take Maritime Matters Seriously
"The Killala Coast Guard Unit is operational and available in the event of a call-out, but is 'off-the-board' for boat search-and-rescue."
That statement was made by the Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan, whose Department is responsible for the Coast Guard, in answer to a Parliamentary Question by former Marine Minister, Mayo TD Dara Calleary.
Coastguard resignations
It means that the Unit cannot engage in search-and-rescue on the water, but can undertake training. It has been reduced in volunteer numbers because of personnel problems. The Unit was involved ashore but not afloat in the recent when kayakers got into difficulties near Enniscrone, within the Unit's operational area. Two were rescued by the Coast Guard helicopter from Sligo. One made his own way ashore.
The involvement of an independent company in an attempt to resolve the issues has not been successful. There have been other dismissals and resignations in Coast Guard Units around the coast because of personnel issues.
This is one of a number of several marine sector issues at present.
Fishing industry fighting penalty points
The fishing industry is fighting the reintroduction of penalty points by the Taoiseach and the Marine Minister, though both politicians opposed the system and led to its defeat in the Dáil previously. It was also defeated in a legal challenge by the industry in the Supreme Court.
Sinn Fein has claimed that the reintroduction is because Marine Department officials are deciding policy, not the Government and has called for a "root-and-branch" review of the Department: Padraig MacLochlainn, Sinn Fein Spokesman on the Marine says that "the potential of the seas around this island nation is not being fully recognised by the Department which is not engaged in development."
The powerful Irish Farmers' Association has joined in on behalf of aquaculture farmers who it represents. Teresa Morrissey, Aquaculture Executive said there is "a failure at Government level to realise the importance of the aquaculture sector as a food source and as an economic asset of the nation. There is a big contrast by what they say when they talk about its potential and what they actually do."
Covid restrictions on sailing
Fortunately, Irish Sailing has managed to chart a path through the difficulty of pandemic restrictions to keep the sport going, though the impact of the latest in Dublin has cleared the Bay of competitive sailing at present. In Cork, there are worries about the possibility of more restrictions.
In Cork, there are worries about the possibility of more restrictions and how they might affect the rest of the sailing season.
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Galway Paddleboarders Pay Tribute to Enormous Rescue Effort - Former SAR Pilot Raises Questions About Search
Galway student Sara Feeney (23) has said she is “overwhelmed” with gratitude for the hundreds of people who searched overnight when she and her cousin Ellen Glynn (17) were swept out to the mouth of Galway Bay on paddleboards last week.
In a Sunday Times interview, Ms Feeney also pays tribute to her cousin, who was due to be released from University Hospital Galway this weekend.
“We didn’t even verbalise what might happen, or what we might both be thinking,” Ms Feeney, who was able to return home on the night of her rescue, says.
“I think if we had panicked at all, things could have been very different. I know if Ellen had panicked, I would have found it very difficult,” she says.
Ellen Glynn, who has also paid tribute to the rescue agencies, volunteers and Claddagh mariners Patrick Oliver and his son Morgan who found them tethered to crab pot floats, says that the sight of meteor showers and phosphorescence on the sea sustained them during the night.
They also sighted a small pod of dolphins off the Aran island of Inis Oírr the following morning.
Former Irish Coast Guard search and rescue pilot Dave Courtney, author of the memoir Nine Lives, says that questions need to be asked as to why the rescue took so long.
"sea-faring gut instinct"
“The whole country rejoiced when the two women were found alive after 15 hours at sea.,” Courtney said, paying tribute to the enormous rescue effort.
“ But tide and search probability computer technology, and three of the country’s four rescue helicopters - the most modern and best equipped in the world, armed with heat-seeking cameras - were no match for the sea-faring gut instinct of Patrick Oliver and his son Morgan,” he said.
The Olivers had noted the wind and “headed like a bloodhound straight to the survivors’ location”, Courtney said.
“The ocean is a cruel place....there was no loss of life in this incident, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t lessons to be learned,” he said.
“ The term ‘looking for a needle in a haystack’ is valid except that the FLIR / Forward-Looking Infra-Red camera on the Coast Guard helicopter can see the heat of human life relatively easily in sultry summer weather,” he said.
“Was it used effectively during the search? Were search assets duplicating each other’s efforts, instead of extending the search area as time and tidal drift and wind effect would have necessitated?” Courtney asked.
Irish Coast Guard
The Irish Coast Guard has said the search for the two women covered a 200 square mile sea area, and said it was using SAR MAP - the US software used effectively by Valentia Coast Guard in 2011 to track the probable location of the crew of the yacht Rambler which capsized in the Fastnet yacht race off West Cork.
The SAR MAP search area generated two scenarios which were used to co-ordinate all assets, including fishing vessels and commercial craft, it says.
It is understood that the helicopters and lifeboats were receiving frequent reports of “targets of interest”, which they had to divert to.
The Irish Coast Guard says that if the two women were not falling under the focused spectrum of the Sikorsky S-92 night sun or FLIR camera they would be “difficult to spot”, particularly as they had no wetsuits to provide an extra heat source.
“ The search was just moving into the south-west of the Inis Oirr sector ...with both aviation and surface assets when the fishing vessel Johnny Ó came upon them. It is highly likely they would have been detected within the following one to two hours as it was daylight,” it says.
More on The Sunday Times here
DPP Rules Out Criminal Charges in Death of Irish Coast Guard Volunteer Caitriona Lucas
The director of public prosecutions (DPP) has decided that no criminal charges should be brought in relation to the death of Irish Coast Guard volunteer Caitríona Lucas almost four years ago.
As The Sunday Times reports today, her death, the first of an Irish Coast Guard volunteer on duty, prompted two state investigations into the incident off Kilkee on September 12, 2016. A Health and Safety Authority (HSA) inquiry was forwarded to the DPP.
A separate Marine Casualty Investigation Board (MCIB) report, published two years after the incident, was critical of the Irish Coast Guard’s safety management system, and outlined a number of systems and equipment failures in relation to the Kilkee unit.
The DPP recently informed Bernard Lucas, her husband, that no criminal charges would be brought arising from the HSA inquiry.
Gardai have also confirmed that the DPP has directed no criminal prosecutions will arise from their investigation into the Irish Coast Guard Rescue 116 helicopter crash. Two pilots, Dara Fitzpatrick and Mark Duffy, and winch crew Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith died in the crash off the north Mayo coast in March 2017. An HSA inquiry is still ongoing.
Read The Sunday Times here
Call Outs for Bangor Coastguard & Lifeboat
Last Thursday and Friday were busy days for Bangor Coastguard on Belfast Lough with an incident on both days.
On Thursday evening the Coastguard and the Police Service investigated reports of concern for a kayaker seen the Ballywalter area in failing light. Ballywalter is a small village on the east coast of Co Down with a long award-winning sandy beach and a small harbour which partially dries out.
By the time the team arrived, it was already dark, and together with their Police colleagues, a plan was put in place. Coastguards searched the beach area while the Police spoke with the first informant and checked the area around the Harbour. The Police Helicopter was also requested but unable to attend, so the Police fixed-wing aircraft was asked to assist.
As one of the team was completing their search, they saw a kayaker round the Harbour wall. After a quick conversation, it was established that this was the person they had been looking for and he was given safety advice and both Police and Coastguards stood down.
The next day (Friday) the team was tasked along with Bangor Lifeboat to a yacht with engine problems between Bangor and Groomsport. They kept visual on the vessel while the Lifeboat set up a tow and headed for Bangor where the vessel and the lifeboat were met in the harbour by Coastguard personnel.
Ireland Gets Maritime Oil Pollution Plan - Almost 34 Years After Kowloon Bridge Sinking
Irish Coast Guard deputy director Gerard O’Flynn has hailed as a “milestone” the publication of the State’s framework for handling major maritime pollution incidents.
The plan released by the outgoing government last Friday (June 26) fulfils long-awaited commitments made after the grounding of the Kowloon Bridge off the west Cork coast almost 34 years ago.
Devastating damage was caused to wildlife and the south-west coast’s marine environment when the 900 ft super bulk carrier with a cargo of iron ore ran aground in a gale on November 22nd,1986, broke into three pieces and sank off Toe Head.
At that stage the 27 crew had already been airlifted off the ship, having reported damage to its steering gear.
There was no public inquiry, and Cork County Council had to bear the full clean up of the cost of 0.5 million
The Sea Pollution Act 1991 makes provision for the prevention of pollution of the sea by oil and other substances, but Ireland is obliged to have a national contingency plan as a signatory to the International Convention on Oil Pollution Preparedness, Response and Co-operative Convention.
Mr O’Flynn said the new plan is a “very important milestone”, which “sets out a framework for interactions between stakeholders” in a major pollution incident.
These stakeholders range from the Government’s transport department to the Irish Coast Guard – responsible for both search and rescue and pollution response – and shipping companies, he said.
“We have a national search and rescue plan, and this new pollution contingency plan is another landmark,” he said.
The new national search and rescue plan was published by former transport minister Shane Ross in July 2019.
He was acting on recommendations in a number of reports – including the Air Accident Investigation Unit’s interim statement on the Rescue 116 helicopter crash of March 2017 which claimed the lives of Irish Coast Guard aircrew Dara Fitzpatrick, Mark Duffy, Paul Ormsby and Ciarán Smith, and the Marine Casualty Investigation Board’s report into the death of Irish Coast Guard Doolin volunteer Caitriona Lucas off the Clare coast in September 2016.
The maritime oil and hazardous and noxious substances (HNS) plan sets out a framework for pollution originating from ships, harbours, offshore units or oil/HNS handling facilities and land-based sources.
It covers waters in the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and addresses Ireland’s obligations under international convention.
It also provides for requesting assistance from other countries through bilateral and multi-lateral arrangements.
Bangor Coastguard's Busy Weekend
The rescue services were so busy over the weekend that they have related several incidents together.
A jetskier needed medical assistance after coming off his jetski. Donaghadee Lifeboat brought the casualty from Millisle into Donaghadee harbour and was met by Northern Ireland Air Ambulance, HART Paramedics, NIAS Ambulance and Bangor CRT. The team thanked the Kayakers who went to his aid.
Bangor was the scene when two girls were washed out to sea on paddleboards. And at Millisle it was a false alarm with good intent when a member of the public who did not see the canoe belonging to two males, thought they were trapped on the rocks.
Portaferry Coastguard Rescue
And today (Sun 28th) the team was tasked along with Portaferry Coastguard Rescue and Portaferry Lifeboat to rescue several people stuck on one of the many islands in Strangford Lough. The persons involved had spent the night on the island and had attempted to come back ashore. It was at this point one of the kayaks capsized and they returned to the island. Portaferry Lifeboat brought all nine people back to the waiting Coastguards who carried out welfare checks on everyone.
Belfast Coastguard says “A big thank you to the members of the public who gave our casualties warm drinks”.
An elderly couple had a narrow escape when their car left the road and tumbled over rocks towards the sea at Galway’s popular Blackrock diving tower on Wednesday evening.
Emergency services including the Galway Fire and Ambulance Service, Gardai, Irish Coastguard helicopter and RNLI lifeboat volunteers were alerted after the Nissan Almera reversed over the pavement at Salthill promenade and fell about six metres (20 ft) down towards the beach.
The incident occurred at around 5 pm, just an hour after high tide, but the car did not hit the water. Several units of Galway Fire Brigade managed to free the elderly couple from the car on the rock armour.
Car accident in #Salthill pic.twitter.com/lOwzrx0Zki
— Inga Turcan (@Inga_Turcan) June 17, 2020
The Irish Coast Guard helicopter which was en route from Shannon was stood down when it appeared that the vehicle was not in danger of hitting the water.
The couple was taken by ambulance to University Hospital Galway. It is understood that their injuries are not life-threatening.
Sgt Vincent Jennings of Salthill Garda Station said that it was a “miracle” that there were no fatalities or injuries.
“The Prom has been very busy, and this was just an hour after high tide,” Sgt Jennings said. He said onlookers gave several rounds of applause when the couple were stretchered up to the ambulance by paramedic staff.
Labour councillor Niall MacNelis, who was leaving a Galway City Council meeting in Leisureland, Salthill just after the incident happened, paid tribute to the Garda and emergency personnel.
“If it had been a warm summer’s evening, this could have been a very serious incident, and we are all glad that the couple survived,” he said.
Efforts were being made by the fire brigade to remove the vehicle from the rocks. Traffic diversions were put in place for several hours in Galway this evening.
The Irish Coast Guard and Water Safety Ireland are appealing to the public to be mindful of the drowning risk associated with the use of inflatable toys in open water.
Their joint appeal calls on parents and guardians never to allow inflatable toys to be used at rivers, lakes or beaches as the devices are vulnerable to the slightest breeze or current and can take a child away from shore and into danger. Equally the temporary loss of such a device could attract children or adults to try and retrieve them from the water and thereby get into a life-threatening situation.
Good weather has already tempted people into using inflatable toys which has quickly led them into danger and the need for our rescue services to respond.
Commenting on their use, Gerard O’Flynn of the Irish Coast Guard pointed to the fact that SAR resources including Coast Guard helicopters, RNLI lifeboats, Coast Guard units and community rescue boat services are no strangers to such rescues, “Our hearts go out the family that recently suffered such a tragic loss and we also mindful of a number of very near misses whereby children were swept out to sea and were rescued following a full scale Search and Rescue operation
Lifeguards trained by Water Safety Ireland have also seen an increase in the use of inflatable toys such as air mattresses, boats and inflatable rings, however, as Roger Sweeney of Water Safety Ireland points out, they are not suitable for use as recreational craft and can be lethal in open water.
“Drownings typically occur when a person overestimates their ability and underestimates the risk”, he said , “The risk that an inflatable toy can take a person out of their depth and out of their comfort zone is very high due to Ireland’s changeable offshore winds and the range of our tides. This is further compounded if the toy deflates and the person tries to swim or paddle a partly deflated toy to safety. Cooler water can quickly cool the muscles needed for swimming and hidden currents can make this swim very difficult and sometimes impossible. These toys provide a false sense of security and should be avoided.
Both organisations have thanked the public for their ongoing support and cooperation with water safety messages and called on everybody to redouble their efforts during Phase 2 of the roadmap for Ireland's easing of the COVID-19 restrictions to ensure that basic safety precautions are observed when recreating on or near the water.
Remember:
- Inflatable toys are not safe for persons to float upon in open water
- Never be tempted to swim out after a floating toy
- Supervise children closely to ensure that they never use inflatable toys in open water